The 996: First 911 with water-cooled prosaic engine

With a fifth epoch of a 911 introduced in 1997 – a form 996 – Porsche took a confidant step to stop regulating air-cooled engines. After 34 years, a sports automobile manufacturer totally revamped a idol with a new 911 and in doing so solved a array of obligatory challenges. As partial of a routine that had started with a predecessor, a concentration was on shortening prolongation costs by limit harmony of tools with other indication series, such as a Boxster, as good as on assembly updated reserve and emissions regulations. Porsche found a trail into a destiny with a 996.

It did this by preserving classical proportions and mixing them with complicated record – in short, re-inventing a sports automobile fable and scheming it for a future. The 996 had a formidable bequest to follow, though it also represented a initial section of a new era. That was already transparent in a design.

The outcome was a newly grown body, that tender with an elegant, no-frills look. The measure also grew: The new 911 was now 18.5 centimetres longer, and a wheelbase was also extended for a second time in a story of a indication series. This increasing by 80 mm, while a physique breadth also combined another 3 centimetres. The interior also benefited from these changes: a 996 offering some-more bend room and a some-more inexhaustible feeling of spaciousness. The dashboard also had a new look: a 5 turn instruments combine into any other – another mangle with tradition.

However, a biggest array was during a rear. The prosaic engine pattern was recorded – though not a atmosphere cooling, since this cooling element did not have adequate pot to approve with a increasingly despotic emissions regulations. In contrast, a newly grown H2O cooling complement was prepared for a future. This was also loyal for a performance: a four-valve six-cylinder engine generated 300 PS from a banishment of 3.4 litres, therefore relating a mythological 911 Turbo 3.3. After a engine facelift with a banishment of 3.6 litres, this increasing to 320 PS, and in a anniversary book “40 years of Porsche 911”, a energy outlay even reached 345 PS.

The 911 Turbo also perceived a new water-cooled prosaic engine. This came with an considerable lane record: as a 3.2-litre six-cylinder engine, it had already powered a 911 GT1 to feat in a Le Mans competition in 1998. Thanks to twin turbocharging, it delivered 420 PS in a series-production vehicle. This 911 Turbo was therefore a initial array indication from Porsche to mangle a 300-km/h barrier. In a 911 GT2, a section even constructed adult to 483 PS. The PCCB with ceramic stop discs also done a entrance in a impassioned sports automobile and was customary apparatus in a GT2. This was 50 percent lighter than a stop with customary stop discs and had a use life of adult to 300,000 kilometres.

With a same engine though but turbocharging, a 911 GT3 noted a start of a new era: it offering pristine pushing pleasure both on a highway and on a competition lane as partial of Track Days. It also shaped a basement for a Porsche code cups, and was a starting indicate for many competition victories of Porsche patron motorsport all over a world. In a 996, a 3.6-litre naturally-aspirated engine primarily had an outlay of 360 PS, and afterwards 381 PS. The 911 GT3 RS followed in 2003 as an even crook edition. Between 1997 and 2005, Porsche constructed a sum of 175,262 Type 996 vehicles.